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What Is Biofuel?

Biofuel is fuel derived from renewable biological sources such as plants, animals, and waste. Biofuel is a flexible fuel that can be used either in its pure form or blended with petroleum-based diesel fuel. For example, biodiesel, a biofuel end product technically known as mono alkyl esters, is a clean-burning, diesel-equivalent process fuel made from natural, biological sources. Because of their positive environmental impact, biofuels such as biodiesel have been termed “green” oil.
Why Biofuel?
After years of relative obscurity, biofuels, such as biodiesel, are once again emerging as the preferred fuel for diesel engines. Biofuels can provide a comprehensive solution to the important energy, environmental, and societal challenges we face today as well as meet future energy needs.

Reduce Greenhouse Gases and Global Warming
Biofuels can address the growing concerns regarding global warming and the harmful effects of greenhouse gases. Moving to cleaner, carbon-neutral biofuels like biodiesel is essential to reducing greenhouse gases and global warming.

Relative Greenhouse Gas Emissions
B100 = 100% Biodiesel
B20 = 20%

Reduce Dependence on Foreign Oil
Many countries, including the United States, view biofuels as a way to reduce their dependence on foreign oil and protect them from the effects of the political instability present in many of the major oil-producing countries.

Enable Environmentally Friendly Vehicles
Consumers today want to purchase environmentally friendly vehicles, and demand for green vehicles is expected to grow exponentially in the coming years. The growth in green transportation signals a rapidly growing market for retail fuel service stations that offer biofuel products in addition to the traditional petroleum-based fuel products.

Reduce Air Pollution
Many major municipalities in the United States are plagued with air pollution and have begun imposing strict clean air requirements. These municipalities see biofuels as a possible solution to their air pollution problems. Biofuel is a completely biodegradable, clean-burning fuel that minimizes unburned hydrocarbon and sulfate pollutants, poses no significant pollution risks, and is available today.

Provide Renewable, Low-Cost Fuel for Developed and Developing Countries
The world needs dependable, sustainable, and renewable energy to maintain current living standards in the developed world and to meet aspirations in developing countries, including China and India, whose fast economic growth and enormous populations put them on track to quickly become some of the world’s largest energy consumers.

In developed countries, biofuels can reduce harmful carbon emissions, protect consumers from price shocks, create jobs, and encourage investments in new technologies. In developing countries, biofuel can be used in rural areas to run generators in shops and homes, creating jobs and bringing the economic and societal advantages that clean energy provides to developing communities.
Biofuel History
The biofuels industry has existed for more than a hundred years. It first began in the late 1890s, when the German inventor Rudolph Diesel received a patent on an engine design that used peanut oil and compression instead of flammable fuel and ignition to power an engine. Henry Ford later designed the Model T car, which was produced from 1903 to 1926, to use biofuel derived from hemp as fuel. However, with the exploration of huge supplies of crude oil in some parts of Texas and Pennsylvania in the 1920s and 1930s, petroleum became very cheap and led to the reduction of the use of biofuel. During this time, most vehicles began using petroleumbased forms of fuel because they were cheaper and more efficient.

Interest in biofuels revived during World War II, as countries faced fuel shortages and searched for alternatives to imported fuel. However, interest in biofuels waned after the war due to the easy availability of petroleum-based forms of fuel both domestically and from major oil-producing nations in the Middle East.

Interest in biofuels revived again in the 1970s when geopolitical conflicts led OPEC to make heavy cuts in exports to non-OPEC nations. The constant shortage of fuel revived interest in biofuels, but again this interest faded when the world oil supply stabilized.
German inventor Rudolph Diesel

In the first years of the 21st century, interest in and support for biofuels is again on the rise due to the following factors:
Fears over rising oil and energy prices
Concerns about the stability of the global oil supply
Requirements to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution
Interest in supporting rural development and empowering people in developing nations
The biofuels industry is already well-established today. While biodiesel has not yet achieved widespread acceptance in North America because of traditionally low petroleum-based fuel prices, biofuels, such as biodiesel, are widely used in Europe. In 2009, the biofuels industry is projected to produce more than 10 billion gallons of combined alternative fuels and to generate more than $30 billion dollars in revenue.